Peoples' Immune Systems Can Now Be Duplicated In Mice 89
cylonlover writes "Because everyone's immune system is different, it's impossible to predict with absolute certainty how any given person will react to a specific medication. In the not-too-distant future, however, at-risk patients may get their own custom-altered mouse, with an immune system that's a copy of their own. Medications could be tried out on the mouse first, and if they are shown to have no adverse effects, the person could take the medication with a higher degree of confidence. If the person has an autoimmune disease, the mouse could also provide valuable insight into its treatment. A team led by Columbia University Medical Center's Dr. Megan Sykes has recently developed a method of creating just such a 'personalized immune mouse.'"
I think PETA just had a heart attack (Score:5, Funny)
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As Danger Mouse would say "Good grief Penfold!"
Heart attacks don't have much to do with the immune system. So PETA mouse wouldn't have saved them.
/ I miss Danger Mouse- when are they going to make that into a 3D film?
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You are mistaken. The pathogenic contributions to atherosclerosis are not well understood, but there are clear indications they are at least related and quite possibly a contributing factor.
For example this article, but you can find others as well:
Bacteria Eyed for Possible Role in Atherosclerosis [sciencedaily.com]
...(quiet cough)... (Score:2)
http://www.physorg.com/news180722781.html [physorg.com]
"Researchers have known for more than 20 years that a reaction by a patient’s own immune system against the artery wall can trigger a heart attack."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/274921.stm [bbc.co.uk]
"Heart failure may be caused by a malfunctioning of the body's immune system, according to new research."
there's a lot more out there.. google it...
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Insulin has not been made from canines in a very long time. It was never a commercial product as far as I can tell, but was experimented with in the 1920s. Bovine insulin was used for several decades. In the 1980s biosynthetic insulin was widely available and is pretty much all you can find these days.
You live in 2012 and rather than use google and the other wonders of our time to learn something you repeated a stupid lie told to you by someone who is probably dumber than you. OUT! OUT! DEMONS OF IGNORANCE
Wouldn't it make more sense... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... (Score:4, Insightful)
yes, because human lives are worth so much less than animals.....
Are they worth more?
How is the value of a life determined?
Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... (Score:5, Funny)
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"How is the value of a life determined?"
By subjective human sentiment. Nature kills and recycles all "life", which evolved to deal with that by producing replacements.
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yes, because human lives are worth so much less than animals.....
Are they worth more?
How is the value of a life determined?
Salaries and taxes.
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If sense counted for anything we'd just test it on humans.
The most compatible way I can think of would be to test on a cloned embryo, and terminate it when the tests are done.
Unfortunately, given the rate of superstition, that's likely not an option yet.
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Embryos don't have an immune system, per se ... that comes much later in development. Plus, even children's immune systems are not as developed as adult ones.
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So you clone the person, grow them to adults, conduct your tests and then dispose of them. No ethical worries whatsoever!
Mice with human immune systems (Score:3, Interesting)
Yep, nothing could possibly go wrong with this.
And throughout history, no mouse has ever infected a human. So ... we're ... safe?
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If a lab mouse's immune system is a direct copy of a Human's immune system, presumably to test medications against viral and bacterial infections - you are going to be mass-producing (as is the major use in lab mice) - you are creating a system that _will_ produce highly infectious diseases with a high efficiency against the Human immune system. That said, I don't believe this is any more and issue than the ferret research everyone is freaking out about. Hell, bad Hygiene is enough to spawn new diseases a
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Humans are as much a "mass-produc[ed]...system[s]...that _will_ produce highly infectious diseases with a high efficiency against the Human immune system" as any mouse.
It might give a vector for mouse diseases to adapt - but that's about it - and arguably they'd be adapting to the wrong thing.
Mod Parent Up. (Score:2)
I was going to say that: Give a mouse like this as a pet, for MURDER!!!!! The mouse will go get mouse-plague and give it to it's owner by peeing on them.
If you have one of these mice, you can test lethal plagues to find a strain you are immune to, and then spread it to the rest of the world and be OMEGA MAN!
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Yep, nothing could possibly go wrong with this.
And throughout history, no mouse has ever infected a human. So ... we're ... safe?
The mouse will have a louse with a copy of its immune system. So we will know if the mouse gets sick.
I suggest using Petrophaga lorioti.
Interesting. (Score:3)
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... too bad every animal rights group will throw a fit.
Let them. I would pull out the popcorn but I think a bucket of chicken would be more appropriate.
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Try lobster... at least chickens are killed first... they boil the poor lobsters alive.
Or cat. I think I read once that cats are boiled alive too to make it easier to remove the skin.
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Could always use lard or suet instead of butter.
I want to be that mouse! (Score:3)
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Good to see you again buddy
Of Mice and Men (Score:2)
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I think it was "anything", specifically "I know there's a joke in here somewhere, but I can't find it, so I'll just dump core here... *core dumped*"
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We have mice running with human immune system = more oppurtunities for micro organisms to adapt in all kinds of conditions.
Yes- we could see more rodent disease making the leap to mankind.
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We have mice running with human immune system = more oppurtunities for micro organisms to adapt in all kinds of conditions. -S
Acceptable risk. Have all testing done in a contained environment and then incinerate said environment on completion.
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How often do you think lab rats are released into the wild when they're no longer being tested on?
Concerned (Score:1)
I don't know how I feel about human diseases recombining and adapting at what I assume would be an abnormally high rate in an escaped population of these things...
Limits to feasibility: remember TeGenero case (Score:5, Informative)
It remains to be shown how realistically close to human this mouse model can possibly be.
One remembers that a few years ago http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp068082 [nejm.org] (New England Journal of Medicine), a candidate antibody-type medicament from TeGenero produced severe toxicity in the first (and only) volunteers who received it, though previous animal trials had seemed to give a green light to take it forward to humans. Although the initial test animals there were not altered as in the way now proposed, clearly limits exist for the degree of alteration that can be achieved.
-wb-
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These examples are the exception. The lab mouse is the closest non-primate relative on the evolutionary tree (I believe). It's also a suitable model because of their short lifespans and ease of care. Morally, it's more appealing to many because of the apparent lower level of intelligence.
I suppose using primates between mice and humans might make sense, provided they were administered in a similar manner to current clinical trials on humans. If it's ethical for humans to receive the clinical trial, then it'
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Not exactly. As I understand it, the closest non-primate relative to humans is a type of lemur. [nature.com]
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Lemurs are primates.
Flying lemurs are not lemurs nor are they primates.
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Misled by the misnomer. Gotcha. Still, the answer isn't "mice", and it is *called* a lemur. Though, not properly so.
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Can I name mine? (Score:2)
Old News, I say! (Score:5, Funny)
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You mean the other way around:
"It stood up to the load in production, so lets use that codebase for our development!"
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LOL. "Then later on, after it's gotten out of sync with Production, we might even check it in to source control." Too painfully true.
Hmmmm... (Score:3)
Hmmmm... I have a few thoughts.
1) It is well documented that women subconsciously detect in odor the signature of the immune system of men- and this is one of those "chemical" signals that women look for in men.
2) Are women now suddenly going to be attracted to mice?
3) Is this going to be a marketing ploy- carry a mouse of a based on a chick-magnet around and get women to sniff it so that they'll turn to you.
4) If we start giving mice human DNA- are we not worried they'll start getting smarter and plan world domination?
RIAA and MPAA taking note (Score:2)
the Rodents Immunity Assoc of America and the Mouse Patrol Assoc of America are closely watching this for futher developments.
Dune? (Score:2)
Does this remind anyone else about Hawat and the cat he has to milk daily to keep the Baron's poison from killing him?
Ahh, finally (Score:2)
On this week's episode (Score:2)
Dr. House, your patient's mouse had a louse, but don't grouse. It died when Dr. Kraus scanned at 100 gauss. We should douse the patient's blouse with anti-louse, though. Hey, I hear Strauss.
Obligatory Douglas Adams reference (Score:3)
So wait does this count stuff like memory cells (Score:2)
Awww (Score:1)
cool (Score:2)
yeah, right (Score:1)
Ready to get new diseases? (Score:1)